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Living Philosophy, a historically organized, introductory hybrid text/reader, guides students through the story of philosophical thought from the Pre-Socratics to the present, providing cultural and intellectual background and explaining why key issues and arguments remain important and relevant today. Featuring an exceptionally clear and accessible writing style, this unique volume brings philosophy to life with well-chosen excerpts from philosophers' works, abundant in-text learning aids, and compelling color photos and illustrations.

Lewis Vaughn is the author or coauthor of several books, including Philosophy: The Quest for Truth, Ninth Edition, Philosophy Here and Now, The Moral Life, Fifth Edition, and The Power of Critical Thinking, Fourth Edition, all published in 2013 by Oxford University Press.

Each chapter ends with Writing and Reasoning, Review Notes, Key Terms, Notes, and For Further Reading. PrefaceCHAPTER 1. WHY PHILOSOPHY 1.1 Philosophy: The Quest for Understanding The Good of PhilosophyDetails: Your Philosophical BeliefsPhilosophical Terrain Details: Main Divisions of Philosophy1.2 Socrates and the Examined Life Portrait: PlatoThen and Now: Socrates Café1.3 Thinking Philosophically Reasons and ArgumentsDetails: Valid and Invalid Argument FormsReading Philosophy Portrait: HypatiaFallacious ReasoningCHAPTER 2. THE PRE-SOCRATICS AND THE SOPHISTS 2.1 Thales and Anaximander 2.2 Heraclitus Then and Now: The (Ancient) Theory of EvolutionPortrait: Pythagoras and the Pythagoreans2.3 Parmenides Details: Zeno's Paradoxes2.4 Democritus 2.5 Protagoras and the Sophists Then and Now: Moral Relativism and ToleranceAristotle: MetaphysicsAristotle: On the HeavensHeraclitus: FragmentParmenides: On NaturePlato: "Theatetus"CHAPTER 3. SOCRATES: AN EXAMINED LIFE 3.1 The Philosophical Gadfly 3.2 The Socratic Method Portrait: Early Women Philosophers Themistoclea, Arignote, and Theano3.3 Knowledge and Ignorance Details: Socrates in the Clouds3.4 Socrates' Trial and Death Details: Socrates' Last MinutesThen and Now: Your Examined/Unexamined LifeXenophon: SymposiumPlato: SymposiumPlato: The RepublicPlato: ApologyCHAPTER 4. PLATO: THE REALLY REAL 4.1 Plato's Life and Times Portrait: Diotima of Mantinea4.2 Knowledge and Reality Believing and KnowingReason and the FormsDetails: Critiques of the FormsPlato's RationalismThen and Now: Modern Platonism4.3 Allegory of the Cave 4.4 Immortality, Morality, and the Soul The Immortal SoulThe Three-Part SoulThe Moral SoulDetails: The Ring of Gyges4.5 The Individual and the State Plato: MenoPlato: PhaedoPlato: The RepublicG.M.A. Grube: Plato's ThoughtJulia Annas: An Introduction to Plato's RepublicCHAPTER 5. ARISTOTLE: REASON AND NATURE 5.1 The Life of Aristotle Portrait: Aristotle and Alexander5.2 Logic, Knowledge, and Truth Then and Now: Aristotle and Modern Science5.3 Physics and Metaphysics SubstanceChangeCausePurposeDetails: Aristotle's God5.4 Happiness, Virtue, and the Good Details: Aristotle's SoulJ.L. Ackrill, Aristotle the PhilosopherDiogenes Laertius: Lives of the PhilosophersAnthony Gottlieb: The Dream of Reason: A History of Philosophy from the Greeks to the RenaissanceAristotle: MetaphysicsAristotle: Posterior AnalyticsAristotle: PhysicsAristotle: Nicomachean EthicsCHAPTER 6. EASTERN THOUGHT 6.1 Hinduism BeginningsThe VedasThen and Now: The Caste SystemAfter the VedasHindu PhilosophiesDetails: Hinduism and Modernity6.2 Buddhism Buddhist ComplexitiesThe Buddha's TeachingsPortrait: The BuddhaDetails: Buddhism and Violence6.3 Taoism 6.4 Confucianism Details: The Confucian CanonKalama SutraAjahn SumedhoDhammacakapparattana SuttaWalpola Rahula: What the Buddha ThoughtThe Chuang TzuTao de jingAnalectsJohn B. Noss: A History of the World's ReligionsCHAPTER 7. THE HELLENISTIC ERA 7.1 Epicurus 7.2 Epictetus Portrait: Lucretius7.3 Sextus Empiricus Then and Now: Stoicism TodayDetails: The Self-Destruction of SkepticismEpicurus: Letter to MenoeceusA.A. Long: Hellenistic Philosophers: Stoics, Epicureans, and ScepticsEpictetus: EncheiridionSextus Empiricus: Outlines of PyrrhonismCHAPTER 8. THE MEDIEVAL PERIOD 8.1 Between Ancient and Modern 8.2 Augustine TruthThe Hierarchy of BeingGood and Evil8.3 Anselm and Aquinas AnselmAquinasDetails: Science and the Uncaused Universe8.4 Avicenna and Maimonides AvicennaMaimonidesPortrait: Averro:es8.5 Hildegard of Bingen 8.6 William of Ockham Then and Now: Modern Realism about UniversalsAugustine: ConfessionsAugustine: On Free WillAnselm: ProslogiumImmanuel Kant: Critique of Pure ReasonThomas Aquinas: Summa TheologicaHildegard: Causae et CuraeFrederick Copleston: A History of Philosophy: Volume II: Medieval Philosophy: From Augustine to Duns ScotusCHAPTER 9. DESCARTES: DOUBT AND CERTAINTY 9.1 The Pursuit of Knowledge Then and Now: The Scientific (and Philosophical) Revolution9.2 Plato's Rationalism Details: Innate Ideas9.3 Descartes' Doubt Details: Living in the Matrix9.4 Descartes' Certainty Portrait: René DescartesRené Descartes: Meditations on First PhilosophyCHAPTER 10. FROM HOBBES TO HUME 10.1 Hobbes 10.2 Locke Then and Now: Cognitive Relativism10.3 Berkeley 10.4 Hume Portrait: David Hume10.5 Spinoza Details: Russell on Spinoza10.6 Leibniz Thomas Hobbes: LeviathanJohn Locke: An Essay Concerning Human UnderstandingGeorge Berkeley: Of the Principles of Human KnowledgeDavid Hume: An Enquiry Concerning Human UnderstandingGottfried Wilhelm Leibniz: Discourse on MetaphysicsCHAPTER 11. KANT'S REVOLUTION 11.1 The Small-Town Genius 11.2 The Knowledge Revolution Portrait: CopernicusThen and Now: Conceptualizing the World11.3 The Moral Law Ethics and MoralityDetails: Moral RelativismKant's TheoryImmanuel Kant: Prolegomena to Any Future MetaphysicsImmanuel Kant: Critique of Pure ReasonImmanuel Kant: Groundwork of the Metaphysic of MoralsCHAPTER 12. JOHN STUART MILL AND UTILITARIANISM 12.1 The Philosopher-Reformer 12.2 Mill's Utilitarianism Portrait: Jeremy BenthamDetails: Utilitarianism and the Golden RuleThen and Now: Utilitarianism and the Death Penalty12.3 Critiques of the Theory Details: Mill on LibertyJohn Stuart Mill: UtilitarianismCHAPTER 13. HEGEL AND MARX 13.1 Hegel Portrait: Hegel13.2 Marx Details: Einstein on SocialismThen and Now: Is the United States a Socialist Country?Hegel: Lectures on the History of PhilosophyMarx: The Communist ManifestoCHAPTER 14. EXISTENTIALISM 14.1 The Existential Tone 14.2 Kierkegaard 14.3 Nietzsche Details: Nietzsche: Myths and RumorsPortrait: Schopenhauer14.4 Heidegger 14.5 Sartre Portrait: SartreDetails: The Stir Caused by Sartre14.6 Camus Patrick Gardiner: Kierkegaard: A Very Short IntroductionSøren Kierkegaard: Either/OrSøren Kierkegaard: The Point of ViewSøren Kierkegaard: JournalSøren Kierkegaard: Concluding Unscientific PostscriptFriedrich Nietzsche: Thus Spake ZarathustraFriedrich Nietzsche: Beyond Good and EvilFriedrich Nietzsche: Thus Spake ZarathustraFriedrich Nietzsche: The Gay ScienceMartin Heidegger: The Basic Problems of PhenomenologyThomas R. Flynn: Existentialism: A Very Short IntroductionJean-Paul Sartre: Existentialism and HumanismAlbert Camus: The Myth of SisyphusCHAPTER 15. THE PRAGMATISTS: PEIRCE AND JAMES 15.1 The Pragmatist Way 15.2 Peirce Details: Four Ways to Fix Belief15.3 James Portrait: William JamesThen and Now: James and IndeterminismWilliam James: "Pragmatism"Charles Sanders Peirce: "How to Make Our Ideas Clear"William James: "The Will to Believe"Michael Martin: Atheism: A Philosophical IntroductionCHAPTER 16. FEMINIST PHILOSOPHERS 16.1 Mary Wollstonecraft Portrait: Wollstonecraft16.2 Simone de Beauvoir Then and Now: Innate Gender Differences?16.3 Feminist Ethics Details: Ethics Terminology16.4 Feminist Perspectives on Knowledge Alison Ainley: "Feminist Philosophy"Louis M. Antony: "Embodiment and Epistemology"Mary Wollstonecraft: A Vindication of the Rights of WomenJudith Thurman: Introduction to The Second Sex by Simone de BeauvoirSimone de Beauvoir: The Second SexAlison Jaggar: "Feminist Ethics"Jan Crosthwaite: "Gender and Bioethics"Virginia Held: The Ethics of CareAnnette C. Baier: "The Need for More Than Justice"Elizabeth Anderson: "Feminist Epistemology and Philosophy of Science"Eve Browning Cole: Philosophy and Feminist CriticismCHAPTER 17. THE CONTEMPORARY PERIOD 17.1 Wittgenstein Portrait: Wittgenstein17.2 Derrida and Cixous Details: The Telling Gesture17.3 Rawls Then and Now: Political Terminology17.4 Appiah 17.5 Nussbaum 17.6 Martin Luther King, Jr. Ludwig Wittgenstein: Tractatus Logico-PhilosophicusLudwig Wittgenstein: Philosophical InvestigationsSusan Sellers: The Helene Cixous ReaderJohn Rawls: A Theory of JusticeKwame Anthony Appiah: Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of StrangersMartha Nussbaum: The New Religious IntoleranceMartin Luther King, Jr., in: A Testament of HopeMartin Luther King, Jr.: "Nonviolence and Racial Justice"Martin Luther King, Jr.: "Letter from a Birmingham Jail"APPENDIX: How to Write a Philosophy Paper GlossaryIndex of Marginal QuotationsGeneral Index